Representatives from four of the five Singapore restaurants in the Miele list, with their awards: (From left to right) Restaurant Andre's Andre Chiang, Tippling Club's Ryan Clift, Les Amis' Galvin Lim and Iggy's Akmal Anuar. (ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE)

Rebecca Lynne Tan

The Straits Times

Publication Date : 23-01-2013

A celebrity restaurant in Macau has ousted Iggy's restaurant in Singapore from the top spot in an Asian guide to restaurants

A celebrity restaurant in Macau has ousted Iggy's restaurant in Singapore from the top spot in the annual restaurant guide for Asia, The Miele Guide.

The No. 1 restaurant this year is Robuchon au Dome by the renowned French chef Joel Robuchon at the Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macau. It is helmed by the same team that used to run the now defunct Robuchon a Galera at the Hotel Lisboa, which closed in late 2011. It was ranked fourth in the previous edition.

Modern European restaurant Iggy's at Hilton Singapore has fallen to fourth place this year. It had occupied the top spot for four years. Debuting on the list at No. 2 is Waku Ghin at Marina Bay Sands, by Sydney-based Japanese chef Tetsuya Wakuda, famed for his modern European take on Japanese cuisine. Also making it to the list for the first time is celebrated restaurant Nihon Ryori RyuGin in Tokyo, Japan. It came in at No. 18.

Besides Iggy's and Waku Ghin, three other Singapore restaurants are in the top 20 this year. They are high-end French restaurant Les Amis at Shaw Centre (No.10), nouvelle French establishment Restaurant Andre in Bukit Pasoh (No.11), and progressive cuisine restaurant Tippling Club in Dempsey Hill (No.12).

The awards were presented last night at Tamarind Hill restaurant in Labrador Park.

The guide, published by marketing and lifestyle consultancy and publisher Ate, ranks Asia's top 20 restaurants, picked from about 1,700 restaurants in 17 countries that include China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

On Iggy's drop in the rankings, its head chef Akmal Anuar, 30, said: "The number doesn't matter because the level of competition has gone up. No. 4 or No. 20, at Iggy's we know we have given our best and we will work even harder to keep up with the competition."

The guide includes a Chef Of Chefs award, decided on by chefs and restaurateurs listed in the previous year's guide. This year's award went to David Thompson of Nahm restaurant in Bangkok.

The guide was produced in a four-stage process: food critics and writers in the 17 countries shortlisted 993 restaurants while the public nominated another 712.

Voting took place online over a 10-week period from March to May last year. Anyone with an e-mail address was eligible to vote. Each voter was given 10 votes, of which only three could be used for restaurants in his country of residence. Voters were asked to vote only for restaurants they had dined at in the past 18 months.

More than 100,000 votes were cast by over 22,000 voters in 146 countries. The majority of the voters were based in India and the Philippines. A jury - comprising 1,500 restaurateurs, food critics and food and beverage professionals - was then asked to vote.

The final stage involved the editors of the guide as well as each country's contributing editors and critics dining anonymously at the top 20 restaurants to verify the annual ranking. Besides the top 20 restaurants, 480 other restaurants with the most votes were included in the guide.

Asked about the shake-up in this year's top 20 list, co-founder of The Miele Guide Aun Koh, 40, said: "I think it is good that there have been so many changes as it reflects that voters are very aware of how restaurants perform year-on-year."